chiswick timeline of writers & books: a quick guide
From the Writers Trail:
X) John Osborne 1929-1994. Playwright: Wrote Look Back in Anger on Chiswick houseboat, where it was optioned for £25 in 1955. Screenwriter: Tom Jones, Oscar, Best Adapted Screenplay 1964.
Cubitts Yacht Basin, now Chiswick Quay, W4 3UR. (Private estate)
John Osborne: a natural dissenter who changed the face of British theatre – Michael Billington, The Guardian
Photograph of Osborne on Chiswick houseboat: Picture Post
Fifty Years of Anger by Mark Lawson: The Guardian (below)
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Commemorative plaque for Chiswick home of actor Donald Pleasance
(who appeared in Tony Richardson’s film of Look Back in Anger in 1959)
Thames Festival Trust highlights stories about Chiswick writers who have lived by the river and on houseboats, including John Osborne: “In 1955 the 27-year old was a struggling actor and untried playwright. In June that year he completed Look Back in Anger and by the following August it had been rejected by every theatrical management and play agent he could find. His fortunes turned when the English Stage Company optioned the play and took Osborne on as actor, understudy and play reader.” [taken from: The Cinema of Tony Richardson: essays & interviews. Edited by James Walsh. p67]….
Chiswick Timeline Writers Trail
Read more stories via the Writers Tales page.